Wild turkeys can fly short distances up to 55 miles an hour. (Domestic turkeys can’t.) Wild turkeys can also run 12 miles an hour and, completing the triathlon, they are actually adept swimmers.

Brian Tate, using a long roller and standing on the brink of the roof, is painting the roof of a barn on the farm of his father, C.W. Tate, on Highway 25 six miles out of Springfield , Tenn., on ...